Only God Forgives Ryan Gosling

…how's that for a headline? But we're not talking divine intervention so much as a Gosling/Refn teaming for a new Bangkok-set thriller…

Ryan Gosling and Danish filmmaker Nicholas Refn first teamed for the dark classic Drive and are currently working on their second project together Only God Forgives which also stars Kristin Scott-Thomas and Thai artists Yayaying and Vitha Pansringarm.

The story is set in Bangkok. Ten years ago Julian killed a cop and went on the run. Now he manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation. Respected in the criminal underworld, deep inside, he feels empty. When Julian’s brother murders a prostitute the police call on retired cop Chang – the 'Angel of Vengeance'. Chang allows the father to kill his daughter’s murderer, then ‘restores order’ by chopping off the man’s right hand. Julian’s mother Jenna – the head of a powerful criminal organization – arrives in Bangkok to collect her son’s body. She dispatches Julian to find his killers and ‘raise hell’. Increasingly obsessed with the Angel of Vengeance, Julian challenges him to a boxing match, hoping that by defeating him he might find spiritual release… but Chang triumphs. A furious Jenna plots revenge and the stage is set for a bloody journey through betrayal and vengeance towards a final confrontation and the possibility of redemption.

Refn has already confirmed that Drive composer Cliff Martinez will be scoring the film, while Gosling has been speaking about his intensive training regime for the film's Muay Thai scenes. Early sources close to the project talk about the film's dark feel and how tonally it could exist in the same dark universe as Drive. Refn has also confirmed that while there'll never be a Drive sequel, the character of 'the Driver' may return in a future project.

John Mosby served as the editor of Impact magazine for well over a decade and is now the editor of Impact Online. In a career spanning more than 25 years he has written for over thirty titles including Total Film, Starburst, Film Review, Fantazia, Profile and the Yorkshire Evening Post. He has also published several books including two official tie-ins (Barb Wire and The X-Men) and one - The Cutting Edge - on the history of sword-play in the movies.